


Back To Where It Began

by Lastly



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 15:43:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16746835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lastly/pseuds/Lastly
Summary: After leaving Chios, Kassandra returns to the Temple of Artemis in Phokis one last time.





	Back To Where It Began

The rain had been pouring down for days now. It had started raining when Kassandra set foot on Chios to meet with Daphnae and even after several days of sailing to Phokis it had yet to stop. The rain had soaked Kassandra to the bone and had made staying atop Phobos more difficult than usual. All the wine she had drank certainly didn't help either.

Phobos's hooves squished through the muddy trail as they made their way along the path through the Sacred Lands of Apollo and up towards the Temple of Artemis. At some point during her wine-fueled boat ride, Kassandra had decided the best place to curse the god that started the entire series of events.

Here and there along the trail, trees provided some partial cover from the rain but Kassandra hardly noticed due to the fact that she was wetter than Poseidon's beard. Although they couldn't vocalize it, Phobos was thankful for the small reprieve the occasional trees provided.

The pair got up to the Temple of Artemis that overlooked the valley and Kassandra climbed down from Phobos but between her alcohol haze and the muddy terrain she lost her footing and fell backwards into a large puddle and ended up covered in mud. She yelled several obscenities, slightly spooking Phobos who shuffled to the side away from the angry mercenary. Kassandra slowly regained her footing and grabbed Phobos's reins as she looked for a place to tie up Phobos so they wouldn't wander away. At first she thought to tie Phobos to the nearest tree but decided the horse deserved to be out of the rain and took them inside the temple itself. She knew that bringing animals into a temple for any reason other than a sacrifice was frowned upon but Kassandra didn't care about what Artemis thought of her at this point in time.

The interior of the temple was in a pretty sad state already. Not many of the Daughters of Artemis would travel this far West and most of the residents of Phokis primarily prayed to other gods, so that left very few people to take care of this small temple on its lonesome hill. Daphnae had started to work on cleaning it up but wasn't able to restore the temple to what she had wanted it to be before her duties as Priestess took her elsewhere. She had cleared out most of the detritus that had gathered inside but there was still a few branches scattered about and various plants growing up through cracks in the tile floor. An ivy plant of some sort had grown over the statue of Artemis which caused Kassandra to chuckle a bit as she thought that even the plants knew that Artemis wasn't worth their respect.

Kassandra tied Phobos to a particularly ambitious tree that had grown where a tile was missing from the floor and patted the horse on the side. "Good Phobos. I can always count on you." Returning to the place where she first met her true love had had a sobering effect on Kassandra which she decided needed to be remedied, so she dug into her saddlebags and pulled out a bottle of wine and began to drink from it. She moved towards Artemis's statue and glared at it between drinks from her wine.

"Fuck you" She decided to start off simple.

"As your Messenger I'm here to deliver a message for you: fuck you." She took another big drink from her wine and then used the bottle to point at the statue.

"Your... your... bullshit killed the love of my life. It's all your fault she's gone you... you... malakas..." The statue didn't respond. Kassandra finished off the last of the wine and as she realized the bottle was now empty, she threw it at the statue and shattered the bottle across Artemis's face.

Kassandra stumbled over to Phobos and dug through the saddlebag to find the second bottle of wine she had brought on this particular journey. She had made a point to bring the worst wine she found on the Adrestia, her thinking being that Artemis didn't deserve the use of her good wine.

She started to walk back to the statue but instead made her way towards the doorway that exited out to where Daphnae's camp had been set up. "Don't go anywhere, I'm not done with you yet, malakas." she said, hand pointed directly at Artemis. The goddess had no response.

The mercenary briefly stepped back out into the rain and the climbed into the small, lone tent that Daphnae had left behind. The small camp was simple and almost entirely empty besides the tent and unlit campfire. Daphnae had taken all her belongings back with her when she had gone back to Chios for the final time. Kassandra had hoped that maybe she would fine something here, something to stand as a physical reminder of her love, but unfortunately it seemed that Daphnae had been too meticulous and didn't leave anything behind.

Although she didn't notice them due to all the rain, Kassandra had tears rolling down her face as she sat in Daphnae's old tent, slowly drinking her awful wine. She laid down on the lone animal skin in the tent and buried her face in it, hoping to get even a slight whiff of Daphnae's beautiful scent but unfortunately all she got was a nose full of leather. The smell made her gag, causing her to bolt upright and take a big drink of her wine (which also made her gag but it was preferably to gagging on the scent of leather).

Kassandra brushed her hand along the spot where Daphnae used to lay, imagining her gorgeous figure laying next to her. She couldn't stop thinking about how if she had known what was going to happen on Chios then she would have made their final night in Phokis much more special. That isn't the only thing she wished she could do differently but at this moment it was the one she thought about most. That last night, they had laid together, made love, and talked about nothing in particular. She wasn't sure what she would have done any differently than that since that was a pretty wonderful way to spend any night but if she had known it would have been their last...

She sat and pondered for a bit, thinking of all the things she and Daphnae had done and the things that she had left undone. She thought about the things she had wished she had said and all the ways she could have professed her love for the priestess. Eventually she realized she was down to the last third of the bottle of wine and decided it was time to relieve her anger on Artemis again.

She clambered out of the tent and stumbled into the temple once again. Her steps were even less sure than they had been before. What the wine she had brought lacked in quality of taste it made up for in effectiveness in getting her very drunk. She leaned against one of the columns inside the temple, took another drink of wine, and stared up at Artemis again.

"I'm back... anything to say to me yet?" she paused for a moment, not actually expecting a response. "No... of course not." Kassandra finished off the last of her wine, looked at the bottle, and then looked back up Artemis. "I'm not wasting another perfectly good wine bottle on your stupid face" she said, pointing the bottle at the statue again but this time she kept it in her hand instead of launching at the marble figure.

Kassandra slowly made her way across the room to Phobos and did her best to not need anything for support but did occasionally have to rest a hand against a pillar to prevent herself from falling over. She slid the empty bottle back into her saddlebag and pulled out a fur blanket. "I hope you don't mind staying here for a night Phobos... I'm not in much shape to try and ride back right now" she said, quietly. Phobos neighed in response, seemingly agreeing with Kassandra.

She started to head back towards the tent but stopped just at the doorway to look back at the statue one more time. "Fuck it.. and fuck you." she muttered as she made her way over to the base of the statue. She set the fur down on the altar and then slowly climbed her way up next to the statue, braced herself against the wall, and began to push. The marble statue was heavy and the smoothness of the carving made it difficult for Kassandra to get a firm grip on it but she was the Mighty Misthios - no feat was too hard for her to overcome. Her muscles strained as she pushed and just when she was ready to give up, it finally started to budge. Feeling the statue start to shift and move gave her the burst of strength necessary to tip it over and after that, gravity took hold and finished the job for her. The statue of Artemis fell to the ground and shattered, pieces and shards scattering all across the temple's dirty floor. Her head rolled across the uneven floor, eventually coming to rest near the doorway. Phobos was briefly startled but calmed down once they knew that the statue wasn't going to hurt them.

Kassandra started to climb down off the pedestal that once held the statue but lost her balance, fell down onto the altar, grabbed the fur blanket, and rolled down onto the floor. She would have stayed there for more than a moment to rest but instead tried to get up quickly due to the various broken bits of Artemis's legs and feet that were underneath her that caused her quite a bit of discomfort. She made her way to the door and picked up Artemis's head and carried it over towards Daphnae's tent. She placed her fur blanket in the tent and then carried the marble head over towards the edge. Even though the cliff wasn't particularly high or steep, Kassandra knew that throwing Artemis's head off of it would be extremely satisfying. And she was right. It bounced off of a few rocks on the way down, small chips breaking off with each collision, and eventually fell into some particularly deep mud that covered nearly all the pure white of the marble. Kassandra couldn't help but crack a small smile. Even though it would probably be considered heresy or blasphemy or something, smashing that statue and chucking Artemis's head off a cliff was extremely cathartic for her. She spit off the side of the cliff, assumed that it successfully landed on Artemis's face and then climbed into the tent and wrapped up in the fur blanket. She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts on Daphnae: her smile, her laugh, how fun it had been to flirt with her, and all the times they had made love in this very tent. Kassandra eventually slept and even dreamt of some time spent with Daphnae. 

The next morning the rain had stopped. Kassandra had one of the worst hangovers she had ever felt, but deep inside she felt the beginnings of closure. Daphnae lived on in Kassandra's heart.


End file.
